Bichabd thomas bell



- R. T. BELL.

ADVERTISING DEVlCE.

- APPLICATION FILED JULY I. 1916.

1,306,739. Patented June 17, 1919.

Inventor.

Jzfi m: NORRIS PETERS co. PNDYfl-LIYHKL. WASHING you, n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

RICHARD THoM-As BELL; on TORONTO; ONTARIO,- CANADA.

ADVERTISING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 17, 1919,

Application filed July 7, 1916. Serial No. 107,916..

To all whomc't may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD THOMAS BELL, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of the city of Toronto, county of York, Province of Ontario, in the Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Advertising Devices, as described in the following specification andillustratedin the accompanying drawings, that form part of the same.

This inventionrelates to advertising devices, particu-larly to advertising devices adapted" tobe used in connection with scales,

such as are placed in public places to enable a person to ascertain his weight by standingon a platform, which operates a weight indicating pointer.

weight of a person standing on the platform and other mechanism" also actuated by the platform which operates" the advertising" cards or display exhibits, and causes them to move relatively to the sight opening so that they are visible when a person-is standing on the platform and invisible when the platform is unoccupied.

The invention will be fully disclosed in" the following description taken :in connecti'on with the accompanying drawings", in which':' 1 Figure I is a front view of the upper portion of the scale, partbeingbroken away to disclose the interior mechanism.

Fig; 2 is a section along the line AB of Fig. I. r v

Fig. 3 isa section along the line CD'of Fig. 1, lookingdownward'ly.

Fig. 4 is a view upon a reduced scale of v the entire device.

The present inventionmay be embodied in a casing of the usual type employed in scales of this character. As shown, the casingcomprises 'a base 10, hollow column 11 is carried in the usual manner upon the and cylindrical head 12. The platform 13 base and connect'ed'by a chain or rod l4:-

with the indicating mechanism in the head. An annular flange 15 extends inwardly from the cylindrical wall of thehead immediately behind the glass front plate and secured to this flange are segmental cards 16 which are opaque and' on which isprinted or painted advertising matter. Each of these segments 16 is'a quart-er segment and they are arranged diametrically opposite to each other on a horizontal line, so that two opposed quartensegments 17' are left in a vertical line, and are open and unobstructed save forthe'glass plat'ea'nd constitute sight openings through which the interior of the casing may ordinarily beseen. If desired the segmental cards 16' may be omitted and the same matter painted upon the glass pl'ateld- It 1s not necessary in this invention that there be a plurality of sight openings as the I device lS'BflGCtiVGZWhGIl but oneis used, but, to increase the efl'ectiveness, two' or more unobstructed segments or sight openings are usually employed. The weight indicating pointer 18 is arranged in front of the seg--.

mental cards 1'6and plays over a small dial preferably attached thereto. .This pointer" is operated from the platform in a manner hereinafter to be fully described, to indicate.

the weight of a person standing thereon.

Centrally arranged within the casingis a hub member 19, the forward end of which is pivotally mounted a vertical bar 20 extending" across the casing and having itsends rigidly attached thereto, the rearward end of the hub being journaled in abracket 21' bolted orotherw-ise suitablysecured to the back of the casing. Mounted upon radial arms22 secured to this hub in front of the vertical bar 20* are advertising cards or disexhibits 23 which are held within grooves in the arms and are thereby secured to the hub at right angles to its axis. These cards are adapted to be rotated by' the hub in a plane parallel to the face ofthe casing and are immediately behind the stationary: segmental cards LE6. The cards 28'- are also segmental in shape so that as the hub rotates, they may alternately appear at the sight openings and completely disappear behind similarly shaped opaque cards l6."

' The rearward portion of the hub 19 has gear teeth which are engaged by a vertically reciprocable rack 24 which is maintained in engagement therewith by a supporting bracket 25 bolted or otherwise suitably secured to the bar 20 and which has suitable fingers extending along the sides of the rack to prevent its displacement. In the operation of the device, the upward and downward movement of the rack rotates the hub 19 and the advertising cards, back and forth and in order to properly limit this rotary movement of the cards stops 16 are adjustably secured to the bar 20, the stops being en gaged by the ends of the rack at the desired limit of movement.

Extending through the hub is a spindle 27 to the outer end of which is attached the pointer 18 which indicates the weight on the dial, as before explained. This spindle 27 has its rear end suitably mounted in the bracket 21. and has thereon a pinion 28 which is engaged by the teeth of a vertically reciprocable rack 29 held within a bracket 30 similar to the bracket 25. By the vertical reciprocation of the rack 29 the spindle 27 is rotated to cause the pointer 18 to indicate on the dial the weight of a person or object upon the platform.

Means for operatively connecting the two racks to the platform will now be described. The rack 29 is supported at its lower end by a pin 31 projecting laterally from the lever 32, one end of which is supported upon knife edges by a bracket 33 and has its other end connected by means of a coil spring 34 to a bracket 35 secured to the back of the casing. This lever 32 which forms the scale beam is arranged so that its ends are on opposite sides of a line passing vertically through the center of the casing and approximately midway between the ends is hung thereto with knife edge contact the rod 1%, the rod extending downwardly and being connected to the platform mechanism. This rod transmits motion from the platform when it is moved under the pressure exerted by a superimposed weight, to the lever 32 which is thereby pulled down against tension in the spring 3%. Its downward movement causes a downward movement of the rack 29 which rotates the spindle 27 and hence the indicator 18. By properly adjusting the tension in the spring 34 and by properly proportioning the various lever arms in the rest of the mechanism, the pointer 13 may be made to indicate upon the dial the exact weight which is placed upon the platform.

The rack 24 which rotates the hub 19 and advertising cards 23 rests upon the end of a second lever 37 fulcrumed upon a bracket 38 and having knife edge contact therewith and also having a weight 39 upon its outer end of suflicient mass to keep the rack nor mally in its uppermost position. In order that the lever 37 may be swung downwardly to operate the advertising cards when a weight is placed on the platform, it is operatively connected with the lever 32 by a laterally extending rod 40 rigidly secured to the lever 37 and which extends beneath the lever 32 so that when the latter is moved downwardly, because of the pull of the rod 14 it will strikethe rod 40 and actuate the lever 37 and hence rotate the cards.

From the above description the operation of the device is apparent. When a weight is placed upon the platform, the rod 141 is drawn downwardly thereby actuating the lever 32 and also the lever 37. The levers 32 and 37 moving downwardly, lower the racks 29 and 24 respectively, thereby simultaneously rotating the pointer 18 and the advertising cards so that a person standing on the platform and facing the face of the head 12 will see this simultaneous movement and will have his attention directed to the advertising matter appearing at the sight openings When the rack 24 controlling the hub 19 reaches the lower stop 26 it comes to rest thereon, stopping the rotation of the cards when they are behind the sight openings so that they may be read. The lever which ordinarily supports the rack 24 continues to move downwardly and the pointer may continue to move around the dial but neither of these movements effects the hub 19 and display cards which remain in the same position. The effect is thus realized that the display matter has a limited positive automatic movement while the movement of the pointer is only limited by the capacity of the scale mechanism and is variable.

WVhen the person steps from the platform the spring draws the lever 32v upwardly, thereby returning the pointer 18 to its original or zero position and the weight 39 overbalances the lever 37 which lifts, the rack 24 to its original position and returns the advertising cards to their hidden positions behind the opaque segments 16.

In order that the segmental advertising cards may be easily inserted into the grooved arms 22, I have provided slots 41 in the sides of the casing which slots are closed by circumferential doors 42.

As explained, it is not essential to my in vention to have a plurality of sight openings. If desired, a single opening may be used instead. The device is simple, has few working parts to get out of order and is an exceptionally striking way of attracting the attention of a person or persons to advertisements or displays sought to be placed before the public. If desired, the scale mechanism may be omitted and the advertising device used by itself.

Having thus described the invention,what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a display weigh scale, the combination With the scale beam and Weight indicating mechanism, of a rotatable display member, means actuated by the movement of the scale beam for rotating said member, means for limiting the movement of the display mechanism, and means for returning said display mechanism to normal actuated by the return of the scale beam.

2. In a display Weigh scale the combination With the Weigh scale beam and indicating mechanism, of a rotatable display device, a pinion arranged upon said display device, a Weighted rack engaging and adapted to rotate said pinion, a counter-balanced lever supporting said rack in a raised position and having an extension adapted to engage the underside of the scale beam, and means for limiting the downward movement of the rack.

3. In a display Weigh scale the combination with the Weigh scale beam and indicating mechanism, of a rotatable display device, a toothed pinion carried by said display device, a Weighted rack engaging said adapted to engagethe lower end of said rack and to hold same in a raised position, said counter-balanced lever having a laterally extending projection adapted to engage the underside of the scale beam, and a stop adapted to engage said rack and arrest the same and to allow the counter-balanced lever to continue its movement coincident With the movement of the scale beam.

4. In a display Weigh scale the combination'with the Weigh scale beam and indicating mechanism, of a rotatable display device, a lever pivotally supported independent of said Weigh beam and operatively engaging same and adapted to be swung on its pivot by said scale beam, means for rotating said display device engaged by said lever, and means for arresting said rotating means independent of the operation of said lever.

RICHARD THOMAS BELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. v 

